Dave Bopp. Highly Aggregated / Kevin Simón Mancera. Una Imagen, Mi Propia Daga

About

Dave Bopp (*1988, Basel, CH) creates large-scale all-over paintings in which the traces and layerings of the painting process condense into different states of aggregation. They are the primordial ooze of painting – and open-ended state without a beginning and no
closure either, that is about to expand and to implode at the same time. Vaguely discernible silhouettes tumble into a bottomless space that lacks a center or a horizon, back and front coalesce into each other, and the only limits to this eruptive painting
style are the physical borders of the picture plane. The artist constantly endeavors to wrest his subject matter from the shackles of representation and weaves familiar shapes into outlandish forms. It would be futile to look for any conclusive results in there.
These works are made to disorient their viewers and leave them with the exhilarating feeling of some probability overload. HIGHLY AGGREGATED is the first solo show of Swiss born artist Dave Bopp, who is currently enrolled in the painting class of Reto
Boller at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart.

The work of Kevin Simón Mancera is in stark contrast to that of Bopp, with small meticulous drawings that record the emotional and social state of his immediate surroundings in Colombia. The title of this exhibition, UNA IMAGEN, MI PROPIA DAGA (An Image, my own dagger), refers to the power of images and their ability to provide people with pathways into understanding themselves and their world. The pictures of Mancera are strong and keen as are their messages. Combining text and images they show hairy macho men who desperately try to talk about their feelings, another man who shaves his head that is lying in his lap or explicit sexual encounters that are visibly bound to fail. Mancera’s drawings are like remarks made in passing about the big issues of society. They are sharp, witty, sarcastic and sometimes brutal – but all in all very humane.